AMD Radeon PRO W6600 vs NVIDIA L40 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded benchmark data shows a decisive performance gap between the NVIDIA L40 and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA L40 scores 330,926 points, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 73,514 points. This translates to a 350.2% advantage for the NVIDIA L40. In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the NVIDIA L40 records 237,295 points versus 78,428 points for the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, a 202.6% difference. The NVIDIA L40 wins both recorded head-to-head tests, giving it a clean 2-0 record over the AMD part.

The average benchmark score places the NVIDIA L40 at 284,111, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 sits at 81,995. When comparing these averages, the NVIDIA L40 is roughly 3.5 times higher in aggregate performance across the recorded workloads. This is not a close contest by any metric available in the database.

Looking at the percentile rankings, the NVIDIA L40 falls into the 99th percentile among all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 lands in the 92nd percentile. The gap between the 99th and 92nd percentile is substantial, reflecting how far apart these two products sit in the overall performance distribution. The NVIDIA L40's average score is more than triple that of the AMD part, and its individual test results reinforce that pattern.

The nearest rivals for the NVIDIA L40 provide context for its standing. The NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation averages 287,237 points, which is 1.1% higher than the L40's average. The NVIDIA L40S averages 295,763 points, 3.9% higher than the L40. The AMD Instinct MI300X averages 317,994 points, 10.7% higher than the L40. The NVIDIA L20 averages 251,147 points, which is 13.1% lower than the L40. This shows that the L40 sits in a competitive cluster at the top end of the database, trading blows with other high-end server and workstation accelerators.

For the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, its nearest rivals tell a different story. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X averages 80,959 points, which is 1.3% lower than the W6600's average. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 averages 79,842 points, 2.7% lower. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB averages 79,605 points, 3.0% lower. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB averages 79,396 points, 3.3% lower. The W6600 is clustered with a group of older or mid-range products, all within a few percentage points of each other. None of these rivals come anywhere close to the NVIDIA L40's performance tier.

The individual Geekbench results for the NVIDIA L40 show 330,926 in OpenCL and 237,295 in Vulkan. The Vulkan score is notably lower than the OpenCL score, indicating that the L40's advantage shrinks somewhat in Vulkan workloads. For the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, the recorded scores are 73,514 in OpenCL, 78,428 in Vulkan, and 94,042 in Metal. Interestingly, the W6600 performs best in Metal, a test the L40 does not have recorded in the database. The W6600's Vulkan score is higher than its OpenCL score, the opposite of what the L40 shows.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA L40 wins every common benchmark test recorded in the database. It is faster in both OpenCL and Vulkan, and its average benchmark score is far above the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. For workloads that rely on raw compute throughput, the L40 is clearly the stronger choice. Its FP32 performance is rated at 90.52 TFLOPS, while the W6600 delivers 9.247 TFLOPS. That is roughly a tenfold difference in theoretical single-precision compute. The L40 also has a significantly higher texture rate at 1,414.3 GTexel/s versus 289.0 GTexel/s, and a pixel rate of 478.1 GPixel/s versus 165.1 GPixel/s.

The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has one recorded benchmark result that the L40 does not: Geekbench Metal. The W6600 scores 94,042 in that test. Since the database has no Metal score for the NVIDIA L40, it is impossible to compare the two directly in that API. However, the W6600's Metal score is higher than its own OpenCL and Vulkan scores, suggesting that AMD's part is relatively well suited to Metal-based workloads on the platforms that support it.

Memory configuration heavily favors the NVIDIA L40. The L40 comes with 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 864.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For large datasets, model weights, or high-resolution textures, the L40's memory capacity and bandwidth are in a different class. The W6600's 8 GB capacity may be sufficient for smaller workloads, but it will hit limits far sooner in memory-intensive tasks.

Power consumption is one area where the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has a clear advantage. The W6600 has a TDP of 100 W and requires a single 6-pin power connector with a suggested 300 W power supply. The NVIDIA L40 has a TDP of 300 W, requires a 16-pin power connector, and suggests a 700 W power supply. The W6600 also occupies a single slot, while the L40 is dual-slot. The L40 is also physically longer at 267 mm versus 241 mm for the W6600. For systems with strict power or space constraints, the W6600 is much easier to accommodate.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA L40 outperforms the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 by a massive margin in every common benchmark. Anyone whose work depends on maximum compute performance in OpenCL or Vulkan should choose the NVIDIA L40. The L40's 99th percentile ranking among all GPUs, its 48 GB memory capacity, and its 864.0 GB/s memory bandwidth make it suitable for the most demanding server and workstation tasks. Its average benchmark score of 284,111 is more than three times the W6600's 81,995.

The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is the appropriate choice only in specific circumstances. Its 100 W TDP, single-slot design, and 300 W suggested power supply make it far easier to integrate into compact or power-limited systems. Its 8 GB memory capacity and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest, but may be sufficient for lighter professional workloads. The W6600 also has a recorded Metal benchmark score of 94,042, which may matter for users working primarily in Metal environments. The NVIDIA L40 has no recorded Metal score, so that workload remains a point in favor of the AMD part.

The launch MSRP for the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is 649 USD. The NVIDIA L40 has no recorded launch MSRP in the database. Both products are marked as end-of-life in the production status field.

For users who need raw performance, the NVIDIA L40 is the clear recommendation. For users who need a low-power, single-slot card with modest compute requirements, the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 can serve that role. The performance gap between the two is so large that the only reason to pick the W6600 would be system constraints, not performance expectations.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA L40 has an average benchmark score of 284,111, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has an average of 81,995.

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA L40 in OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA L40 scores 330,926 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 73,514. That is a 350.2% difference in favor of the L40.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 win any benchmark test?

A: The W6600 does not win any of the common benchmark tests recorded in the database. It has a Metal score of 94,042, but the NVIDIA L40 has no recorded Metal score, so no direct comparison is possible in that test.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between the two?

A: The NVIDIA L40 has 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 864.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has lower power requirements?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has a TDP of 100 W, uses a single 6-pin power connector, and suggests a 300 W power supply. The NVIDIA L40 has a TDP of 300 W, uses a 16-pin power connector, and suggests a 700 W power supply.

Q: What are the percentile rankings of these two GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA L40 is in the 99th percentile among all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is in the 92nd percentile.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA L40 is built on the AD102 chip using the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 uses the Navi 23 chip with the RDNA 2.0 architecture, also fabricated at TSMC but on a 7 nm process. The L40 integrates 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 125.3 million per mm². The W6600 integrates 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, with a transistor density of 46.7 million per mm². The L40 is therefore built on a more advanced process node, packs far more transistors, and has a much larger die.

The NVIDIA L40 has 18,176 shading units, 568 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. It also includes 142 ray tracing cores and 568 tensor cores. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The W6600 has no tensor cores listed in the database. The L40 has ten times more shading units than the W6600, and its ray tracing core count is roughly five times higher.

The memory subsystem also differs significantly. The L40 uses 48 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 384-bit bus, while the W6600 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus. Memory clock speeds differ as well: the L40 runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed, while the W6600 runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed.

The L40 supports FP32 at 90.52 TFLOPS and FP16 at 90.52 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio. The W6600 supports FP32 at 9.247 TFLOPS and FP16 at 18.49 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. This means the L40 has equal FP16 and FP32 throughput, while the W6600 has half-rate FP16. The L40's FP32 output is roughly ten times the W6600's, and its FP16 output is roughly five times higher.

The L40's pixel rate is 478.1 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 1,414.3 GTexel/s. The W6600's pixel rate is 165.1 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 289.0 GTexel/s. The L40 leads in both metrics by wide margins.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every recorded specification field. The NVIDIA L40 has a base clock of 735 MHz and a boost clock of 2490 MHz. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has a base clock of 2331 MHz and a boost clock of 2580 MHz. The W6600 actually has higher clock speeds, but its far smaller shader count means it cannot compete in raw throughput.

The L40 has a TDP of 300 W, occupies a dual-slot form factor, and uses a 16-pin power connector with a suggested 700 W power supply. The W6600 has a TDP of 100 W, occupies a single-slot form factor, and uses a 6-pin power connector with a suggested 300 W power supply.

The L40 measures 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The W6600 measures 241 mm in length, with no height recorded in the database.

The L40 uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface, while the W6600 uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Both cards have four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The NVIDIA L40 was released on 2022-10-12, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 was released on 2021-06-07. The L40's predecessor is Server Ampere and its successor is Server Hopper. The W6600's predecessor is Radeon Pro Vega, and no successor is recorded. Both products are marked as end-of-life in the database.

The W6600 has a recorded launch MSRP of 649 USD. The L40 has no launch MSRP recorded. The L40's generation is listed as Server Ada (Lxx), while the W6600's generation is Radeon Pro Navi (Navi II Series).